Terms for "white man"?
Rory M Larson
rlarson at unlnotes.unl.edu
Wed Mar 10 02:30:18 UTC 2004
I'm wondering about MVS terms for "white man".
Da: was^i'c^uN (nearly synonymous with wakhaN',
according to Riggs.)
OP: wa'xe (wa-axe ?? axe = ??
[x] is the voiceless form here.)
Osage: iNs^ta'-xiN ("yellow-eyes", according to La Flesche.)
What other ones do we have? I'd be especially interested in
Iowa, Oto, Hochunk and Kaw.
Can anyone suggest a derivation for the OP term? I think the
explanation given in Fletcher and La Flesche (p. 81-82) is
fanciful. I was tempted to think of axe as "cry out for"
something, e.g. war, but this verb has the voiced form of [x]
according to Dorsey; thus ag^e, "cry out for", vs. wa'h^e,
"white man".
Thanks,
Rory
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